1. India saw the number of ATMs grow to over 17,000 machines in ’05 from 1,500 ATMs in just five years. In the last one year, however, ATM sales in the country were down to about 2,000 pieces. Not because ATM market has saturated in the country, but because of regulations. In September last year, RBI stipulated that banks would have to take prior permission to set up offsite ATMs. ATM sellers thought booming economy, increasing card usage, rising customer expectations and cost savings for banks would keep the ATM growth going. For example, Venture Infotek in a survey on payment card industry said in ’05, “Five years from now bankers reckon that there will be roughly three ATMs for every one branch, which may result into around 70,000 bank branches and over 2,00,000 ATMs by ’10.” Today, China has 1,20,000 machines, and India just a sixth of that. You would expect India to have at least half the number of China’s ATMs. But ATM sales have actually slowed down now. At last count, 3,94,500 ATMs were currently deployed within the United States, of which approximately 1,94,000 or 49% are operated by independent sales organisations.
2. Indian banks can now look forward to an easy entry into the US financial market. The government has decided to move amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act that will bring it more in sync with the demands of the US and EU about taking tougher action to block terrorist financing through banking channels. The demands had been affecting the global expansion plans of banks including the SBI and others, which are planning to set up more branches in these markets.
3. Total employment in 27 public sector banks (excluding IDBI, whose data are available for the last two years only) has declined by 1.4% in 2005-06, from 7.44 lakh in 2004-05 to 7.33 lakh. In fact, employment has declined in each of the last three years. In four years, between 2001-02 and 2005-06, employment in public sector banks has shrunk by 3%. Three big private sector banks, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and UTI Bank, together have increased their manpower by more than three and a half times from 13,189 in 2001-02 to 46,910 last year. In 2005-06 alone, employment in these banks have increased by 47.4%. Interestingly, although the employee strength of the PSBs have declined, their business have grown rapidly, indicating a rise in labour productivity. All 28 public sector banks have witnessed an increase in per employee business in 2005-06.
4. BoB is contemplating entering the stock-broking space and would prefer to acquire an existing firm with a wide network to foray into the business. It is already talking to broking firms which have a strong network. It is looking at an acquisition to have a 100 % management control. However, it is flexible on the structure.
5. UCO Bank has mooted a proposal to the Union Finance Ministry for the restructuring of its capital. Its present equity size is Rs 800 crs.
6. A book on 50 years of banking development in Karnataka, authored by Dr N.K. Thingalaya, economist, will be released on November 2. (Corp.Bank)
2. Indian banks can now look forward to an easy entry into the US financial market. The government has decided to move amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act that will bring it more in sync with the demands of the US and EU about taking tougher action to block terrorist financing through banking channels. The demands had been affecting the global expansion plans of banks including the SBI and others, which are planning to set up more branches in these markets.
3. Total employment in 27 public sector banks (excluding IDBI, whose data are available for the last two years only) has declined by 1.4% in 2005-06, from 7.44 lakh in 2004-05 to 7.33 lakh. In fact, employment has declined in each of the last three years. In four years, between 2001-02 and 2005-06, employment in public sector banks has shrunk by 3%. Three big private sector banks, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and UTI Bank, together have increased their manpower by more than three and a half times from 13,189 in 2001-02 to 46,910 last year. In 2005-06 alone, employment in these banks have increased by 47.4%. Interestingly, although the employee strength of the PSBs have declined, their business have grown rapidly, indicating a rise in labour productivity. All 28 public sector banks have witnessed an increase in per employee business in 2005-06.
4. BoB is contemplating entering the stock-broking space and would prefer to acquire an existing firm with a wide network to foray into the business. It is already talking to broking firms which have a strong network. It is looking at an acquisition to have a 100 % management control. However, it is flexible on the structure.
5. UCO Bank has mooted a proposal to the Union Finance Ministry for the restructuring of its capital. Its present equity size is Rs 800 crs.
6. A book on 50 years of banking development in Karnataka, authored by Dr N.K. Thingalaya, economist, will be released on November 2. (Corp.Bank)
